Category: A Rose For Emily

In criticizing the story using a formal approach, another reading of ‘Emily Rose’ was made. I started reading this article because I had already decided to use a formal approach. The story of ‘Emily’s Rose’ is written in the first person or as a member of the community. The images Faulkner presents in this story run the former South Stadium. Languages ​​such as tradition generation and type of genetic obligation contribute to the ancient meaning of the South. The story is written as if told by a member of the community, but the picture is appropriate because Faulkner himself was from Mississippi during the Civil War.

Emily Rose ‘begins and ends with her death, so the old sense of the story is appropriate.’ Past sensations help readers recognize that they read stories that change on one side of the hero’s life. intrigue ‘Emily Rose’ comes and goes in a non-chronological order This narrative method offers a surprising element at the end of the story.The story is also associated with a surprising element at the end of the story. end of a story in the following way, as if it were written, as if a member of society was writing in the present.For example, Emily bought poison into the story and community members were convinced that she would commit suicide. Later, Emily’s cousin told the community that she ‘bought a set of men’s clothing, including nightwear’

However, if the events in the story are in reverse order, the reader can easily conclude what really happened. Emily killed Herbert with rat poison. The use of a formal approach includes determining whether a story can be considered a work of art. Faulkner has certainly won the Nobel Peace Prize for literature. At first, the story was a little confusing about the plot, but as the story unfolded, the plot became more obvious. Even though the plot was understood from the beginning, Faulkner had a powerful English command, was able to create a wonderful scene of the picture and clearly explain everything in the story.

The tension between the modern and the old, especially the Old South, permeates ‘A Rose for Emily’ from start to finish. From the first scene of history, Miss Emily’s house, once on a bourgeois street, is now surrounded by ‘modern’ industrial buildings, warehouses, and Miss Emily’s house resembles a ruined building whose climax has disappeared since Then. Long.

Modernity comes to history with revenge when a board member arrives at Miss Emily’s house to tell her that she has to pay her taxes. Unfortunately for the modern part of the city, the Old South raises her head (in the form of Miss Emily) and tells them that Miss Emily has no taxes – they were permanently transferred years ago by Colonel Sartoris. This very modern attempt failed completely due to the defeat of the Old South.

Later, when Miss Emily buys rat poison, apparently to get rid of the ‘rats’, the pharmacist tells her that the (modern) laws require her to know why she asks for poison, she only looks it in the eye, and she wins another war between modernity and the old South.

In the only incident in which Miss Emily actually does something ‘modern’ – and can be wooed not only by a worker, but also by a Yankee – the inhabitants of the city adopt very old Southern attitudes and in fact try to bring the parents to something Sense p to speak. in Miss Emily, to make her behave like the Southern aristocratic, she always is. This also fails completely, another defeat, but this time the conflict tilts on her side, fighting with Miss Emily to be modern, and the city tries to keep the old South alive.

The analysis of Emily’s rose ‘William Faulkner’s rose for Emily’, the death of Miss Emily Gleason, the protagonist of the story, begins and ends. In the story, William Faulkner uses the characterization to reveal the character of Miss Emily. Faulkner expresses Miss Emily’s character through explanation, actions, words, feelings, direct comments to the speaker and actions, words, feelings of the other characters.

Victorian women and ‘Emily’s Rose’ by William Faulkner and ‘Storm’ by Kate Chopin. There is something on a blank page that makes your emotions and emotions flow without judgment. This is your own creature, a creature still hurt by the opinions of others. The sensation of these recordings allows unlimited access to the author’s perspective. That is why we have a unique interview about the idea of ​​the authors and their personal vision of the conflict between two unique Victorian women.

The analysis of Emily’s rose ‘William Faulkner’s rose for Emily’, the death of Miss Emily Gleason, the protagonist of the story, begins and ends. In the story, William Faulkner uses the characterization to reveal the character of Miss Emily. Faulkner divides the story into ‘five parts, the first and the last, now the story, and the three intermediate parts explain in detail the past’ (Davis 35). Faulkner expresses Miss Emily’s character through explanation, actions, words, feelings, direct comments to the speaker and actions, words, feelings of the other characters.

The story of Miss Emily Grissen, who analyzed ‘Amy Rose’ by William Faulkner of Miss Emily Grison. She was born in a rich family in Jefferson. She grew up and lived with a maid in a large Victorian house. After the end of the civil war, his family’s fortune seems to be deteriorating, but Griselson is still trapped in family wealth.

The story is about the death of town’s old isolated woman, the very last surviving individual who had confronted the American South by the American Civil War. She had the recollections within her of the era of white power and black oppression. The prejudice given to her by her father had a bad influence on her entire life, the town people of Mississippi collect for the funeral of Miss Emily, cold and reclusive 74 years old spinster Lester to town her entire life. she was like a memorial to the past a strange fixture of town folklore. Emily’s slow disconnection from the world of her neighbor’s house and the reasons for which she wanted to end her life surrounded by her memories. William Faulkner tale “A Rose for Emily” to the explanation going on how the very South, at its personal risk is rejecting for assuming the certainty of past then societal change. Miss Emily in a quiet, solitary lifetime, she has decided to get married, her rules of living wage, as a result as the man she preferred for forming a family.

William Faulkner begins to relate us of the death of Emily, she died in 1918 of 74 years and then explains or gives details of what was happening at the beginning until her death, speaking of culture, Emily is born of a family belonging to an elite minority who ran a company at that time, while noting that the family had a very beautiful house, in 1875 Emily’s father Mr. Grierson died. it should be noted that, as far as Emily’s father was concerned, he was depicted as a cruel father who hunted all the pretenders who approached his daughter by considering these people were not well for his daughter.

At the age of 32 years in 1876, the great Emily has the chance to marry a man from the north calls Homer Barron who is not class of workers, who ‘is not rich takes Emily in buggy wrinkles on Sunday. it should be mentioned that at that time, many people in the city looked at Mr. Homer Barron in a way to compare his social class with the man, saying this man is not of the same social class with Emily and these people pointed out that Emily was raising in her family in a way that a northern person is not good for her. The people of the city were surprised to see her on Sunday bugging with homer Barron, in 1877, two cousins during their visit to Emily, they pushed her not to get married at Mr. Home saying that it is not clean for her to be seen with Homer.

Faulkner uses this usual arrangement; it is in a zone where he grew up New Albany in the Count of Lafayette whose history extends nearly 75 years. In the story ‘A rose for Emily’, the main character Emily Grierson, she is a nature of the American War in 1861 and died in the late 1920s. After that there is reconstruction because the facts of ‘A rose for Emily’ took place exactly after the civil war. these facts came to light during the reconstruction period in the South. Which is why the many southern states have created a slogan called black codes to increase the rights of free black to use and direct manual labor. all the southern states had an obligation to swear loyalty to union as a unique and inseparable nation. To abound the slave and pay their war bail but also to allow themselves to restore and manage their own community. it is indeed in the story ‘Rose for Emily’, the mayor Colonel Sartoris can say that no black woman should appear in the street without an apron.

The historical context of the story of “A Rose for Emily” is what the story is set in the years following the civil war, this time is also sometimes referred to as the Reconstruction era, so this is the time when the Southern states were rebuilding and rethinking their way of life after the Civil war. We refer to the time when the South was ruled by a wealthy class of white men who owned property. These men were kind of like an aristocracy almost like what you have in your opinion. In England they were not necessarily called princess of some things but that was more of us their station they were wealthyproperty owners they did not practice the profession of the ownership was how they made their money and of course, that money was made on the black of slave labor after the civil war, when slavery was at least officially ended, you can imagine that for an economy that was built entirely on slave labor if you just remove it and make it illegal. Economy previously very wealthy nobleman become no better than their neighbors and in some cases worse off than their neighbors because they were used to a way of life, they did not have to work and suddenly they are kind of thrust into the modern world and not modern world we call the new South, which is a more egalitarian time in place, so everybody has to work for what they have nobody owns or commands others and Miss Emily’s family in this story were members of that alley.

The story tells us how MS Emily is living forever in the past while the wave around her advances Emily Grierson is a strange personality with distinguished characteristics, in front of the eyes of other people she is considered a crazy woman in the fact that she kills her lover to keep him forever with herself, she is a static character who is locked in her past life and unable to change to live according to the evolution of time. Using symbols indicating the death and decadence of a woman whose life ends long before her death. the important symbols of death and decomposition present in history is the house of MS Emily, the appearance and atmosphere of the house allows us to judge on the characteristics of death and decadence in life; Emily. the street is his house has completely changed, except that of MS Emily. The house was a horror in the city and Emily herself was a greater horror in society.

The significance point, the communal sense given the right to vote, when she died, the whole town went to her funeral, the fact that this woman death is a community event, shows us that this narrative is part of his community and Miss Emily means something significant to this town, she is not just any other individual. Miss Emily signifies a section of the South that its belief and history has ceased and barred from rising in a nutritious sense which is based in the south side area and solves rather over the tradition from the past. William Faulkner ‘story” A Rose for Emily “introduces Emily as a very persistent person who chose to live her life in her own path and discover her own way to get solution to the problem and the circumstances, she has developed a technique to guide her life and does not care about a limitation of the society.

The idea of class systems has been around forever and with these classes come expectations for those within them. The short story “A Rose for Emily,” was written by William Faulkner. The main character that the story follows is Miss Emily Grierson. This story is about a woman who lives in Jefferson Mississippi during the 1930’s. Her father always protected her very closely but, after his passing she spirals out of control. The people in the town are curious of what is going on with Emily however, they never question her for many reasons. The main reason being her family’s reputation. In “A Rose for Emily,” by William Faulkner reveals how the class system and societal expectations pressure Emily to isolate herself, lose touch with reality and eventually be discovered to have killed a man she loves.

In the south during this era, parents/guardians were very controlling of their children in hopes of maintaining a perfect imagine to society. This is shown in the text by Emily’s father when he makes it clear that he wants Emily to stay home and not get marries so that he could forever keep his “little girl” and housekeeper. Emily was always contained by her father and she maintains this herself even after his passing. This made the people in town believe that she was just a sweet and innocent lady even with all her strange behaviors. In the text the people of the town said, ‘We remembered all the young men her father had driven away, and we knew that with nothing left, she would have to cling to that which had robbed her, as people will.”(Faulkner 780) This shows that Emily’s father drove everyone away from her which caused her to go against what he wanted for her, but at the same time still confine herself. She chose Homer Baron, a man her father would’ve never approved of which was a shock to the townspeople. They wouldn’t have expected Emily to go against her father’s wishes like she did. This is shown in the quote, “At first we were glad that Miss Emily would have an interest, because the ladies all said, “Of course a Grierson would not think seriously of a Northerner, a day laborer.” (Faulkner 781) This is where the idea of class expectations come in. Emily chose a man from the north with a lower social status, with her coming from an upstanding family this wasn’t highly viewed by her neighbors. They all knew that in a way Emily was choosing Homer Baron just to spite her father who drove so many suitors away because they weren’t good enough for Emily. They knew what Emily was doing when choosing Homer, but they still didn’t agree with the choice which is why she may have isolated herself.

The men throughout the town were afraid of offending a woman especially one coming from a family like the Griersons’. For example, in the story they notice an awful smell coming from Miss Emily’s home, but they don’t know how to tell her without her being offended. This shows that the authorities didn’t want to offend a lady by telling her that her house stinks. Therefore, instead of asking Emily about the smell they handled it without her knowing. However, if they had inquired about the smell, they could have found the rotting body of Homer Baron much sooner. Finding Homer’s body would have helped limit the extent of Emily’s downward spiral out of sanity. If they had found the body Emily wouldn’t have continued to create the fantasy with Homer’s corpse. Another situation like this one occurred in the beginning of the story. Miss Emily had not paid her taxes, so the authorities went to her handle to the issue. They arrived at her door and her response to the accusation was ‘I have no taxes in Jefferson. Colonel Sartoris explained it to me.” (Faulkner 778) They didn’t argue with her they just let it be so, that they would not offend her. This statement from Emily also gives the reader and the townspeople a clue into Emily’s mental state because she mentioned Colonel Sartoris who had been dead for many years. This goes to show that gender roles within the class systems did more harm than good for Miss Emily. The class systems allowed her to continue her downward spiral out of sanity by isolating herself and creating a “perfect” world for herself within the four walls of that bedroom.

Emily was viewed as a sweet and reserved old lady by those in her community but, they had so many questions about her life that couldn’t be answered until her death. In the story it says, “And that was the last we saw of Homer Barron. And if Miss Emily for some time.” (Faulkner 782) It also mentions that she hadn’t left her house in ten years. With Emily not leaving her house for so long, the people in town had no idea what she was doing during this time period. Nobody inquired about why Emily disappeared, they all just stood by and observed. This didn’t help with Emily’s sanity, it was clear that she wanted to seclude herself but, nobody even tried to break down the walls she built up around her after the loss of her father. Before Emily disappeared, she went to the druggist and bought arsenic. Emily went to the druggist with the intent to buy the poison but, nobody knew what for. They assumed she was going to kill herself, but even then didn’t make any attempt intervene because it wasn’t their business. In the story it says, “The druggist makes several. They’ll kill anything up to an elephant. But what you want is-.” (Faulkner 782) This shows that the druggist did want to figure out the reason behind Emily’s purchase, but knows how rude it would be to question and accuse a woman with risk of offending her. This just further proves that the town just allowed Emily to isolate herself and lose her grip on reality by not showing any concern because they feared “offending” a woman of higher class.

Throughout the story, “A Rose for Emily” William Faulkner shows how the way Emily was viewed by the townspeople affected her touch with reality and allowed her extreme isolation. They didn’t question her strange behaviors because of her name, she came from a good family so they assumed that she couldn’t do wrong. However, if they had asked a couple questions or payed her a visit or two, they may have saved the life of Homer Baron. The analysis shows how the town automatically thought highly of Emily because she came from money and prestige. They didn’t dare accuse her of all the strange occurrences in fear of offending a lady. This goes to show that class systems and societal expectations allowed her to drift further away from reality and isolate herself.

Works Cited

1. Curry, Renee R. ‘Gender and authorial limitation in Faulkner’s ‘A Rose for Emily.’ (Special Issue: William Faulkner).’ The Mississippi Quarterly, vol. 47, no. 3, 1994, p. 391+. Literature Resource Center, https://link-gale com.gmclibrary.idm.oclc.org/apps/doc/A15939701/LitRC?u=mill30389&sid=LitRC&xid=3c693753. Accessed 28 Oct. 2019
2. Kirchdorfer, Ulf. “Weak Men in William Faulkner’s A ROSE FOR EMILY.” Explicator, vol. 75, no. 3, July 2017, pp. 145–147. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1080/00144940.2017.1346564.
3. NORTON INTRODUCTION TO LITERATURE: with 2016 Mla Update. W W NORTON, 2016.
4. Yang, Pingping. ‘A road to destruction and self-destruction: the same fate of Emily And Elly.’ Theory and Practice in Language Studies, vol. 3, no. 10, 2013, p. 1850+. Literature Resource Center, https://link-gale-com.gmclibrary.idm.oclc.org/apps/doc/A351082061/LitRC?u=mill30389&sid=LitRC&xid=85700121. Accessed 1 Nov. 2019.

The author of this piece is trying to uncover who the utterer specifically is. the first analysis within the article is whether or not the utterer could be a man or girl. Nebeker incontestable however throughout the story, the utterer shifts from the person to person insistently and use words as “we” and “they” with the aim of conveyancing the time and setting of the plot. within the broadest sense, the article explains, however, a majority of people might believe that the utterer could be a “man” could also be a resident of the city himself. On the opposite hand, within the words of the storyteller WHO sums it up, it’d a resident of Chief Executive, adept at the art of story-telling, shifting the utterer creatively is formed to travel inside the account. The underlying central purpose during this piece ar the cases once the author moves into the judgments relating to however the character moves from individual to a different. The article smartly clarifies however the audience may believe the utterer is imaginably possible one person to a different speaking within the person. There are some valuable lessons I learned from this piece. Grasping this text undeniably answers the question of WHO the storyteller is.

“A Rose for Emily” Analysis

to start out with, one will analyze “A Rose for Emily” through work the necessary hidden message tucked within the story. The hid message that the Falkner tries to precise in his story is that the themes of death and evolution. Death lurks in “A Rose for Emily” from the beginning right to the top because the utterer starts to explain the commencement of Miss Emily’s ceremonial. She selected to not settle for the ending of her dominant father. Miss Emily later kills her lover Homer to create certain that he would ne’er leave her. Throughout the story, Miss Emily tries to forestall any kind of up-to-dateness through death or in a different way of going down in her city. Over time she becomes therefore scared of the amendment and doesn’t allow the town to put numbers on her house to facilitate mailing services.

Also, to the story, the author tries to appear farther at the ideas or theme of the amendment through Homer’s characters. The town ar troubled by Homer’s shut association with the Yankee’s. this may be an associate degree underlying case since it implies a refusal by the community to just accept the amendment that may have taken place once the war concluded. The municipality still harbors negative thoughts towards the residents from the north, in spite of it being quite 3 decades since the war. Instead, they’re against the acceptive amendment, that in most aspects replicate Miss Emily’s disposition to return to terms with the very fact she needs to pay taxes. For the foremost half, there’s a sense that even though the municipality support up-to-dateness to a larger extent than Miss Emily, they’d still encounter issues in alternative areas.

Here, analyzing “A Rose for Emily” it’s additionally necessary to look at race as through the lenses of social science. At one purpose in time, the South was similar with extreme racism and prejudice. Falkner tried to portray this racism is formed evident in “A Rose for Emily” wherever he notes…he WHO fathered the edict that no Negro girl ought to seem on the streets while not associate degree apron-remitted her taxes…” (N.p.). the use of the N-word clearly incontestable Faulkner’s motives. The author accurately conveys what black individuals had to travel through in time throughout that the story was written as Falkner is capable of showing however bereft of the human qualities they were. individuals stripped them of their identity through using the word “negro” or “nigger” to talk to blacks. there’s no doubt; this was very serious that in several cases African Americans were becoming “property” to some, that the author was capable of conveyancing. The author’s utilization of those dyslogistic words assists to shed light-weight on the prejudices that the black community had to expertise within the South.

Falkner’s alternative of using associate degree older members of the community makes it attainable to use flashback to explain Miss Emily’s life, as his utterer is presenting in witnessing them and may be sure to elaborate them properly. The discourse details are essential not solely to the plot however additionally in comprehending however the town thought of Miss Emily and the way this observation will increase as time go on. In many cases, still, the utterer employs “they” instead of “we” is once speaking regarding however individuals nattered regarding Miss Emily. As told, the utterer seems impartial or somewhat compassionate towards her and doesn’t jump to conclusions relating to her life or her mistakes. to boot, Falkner contrasts Miss Emily exactly with the utterer as a result of, like her, he’s older, and is entirely against acceptive social changes.

Conclusion

Falkner in his story “A Rose for Emily” tries to portray a message to the readers regarding the disposition in attribute to espouse amendment and additional particularly the close predispositions of the upper crust within the South at the onset of the 20th century. For Falkner to realize this, he composes a story during which he isolates associate degree recent girl WHO belongs to the upper crust, Miss Emily, from her fellow residents and goes on to pose her manner of life with theirs. For this reason, Falkner depicts her persistent rejection to vary along with the city. whereas the utterer is a gift in most components of the scene that occurs within the story, she isn’t concerned within the happenings and represents town put together.

Work Cited

1. Fang, Jie. “Working through Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily–On Character and Character Portrayal.” Theory and Practice in Language Studies, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2011, pp.105-107. Accessed 22 March 2018.
2. Nebeker, Helen E. “Emily’s Rose of Love: Thematic Implications of Point of View in Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily.” The Bulletin of the Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association, Vol.24, No. 1, 1970, pp.3-13. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/1346461. Accessed 22 March 2018.
3. Gray, and Kristina L. “Comparing Faulkner’s ‘A Rose for Emily’ and Porter’s ‘The Jilting of Granny Weatherall.’” Inquiries Journal, Inquiries Journal, 1 Aug. 2013, http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/750/comparing-faulkners-a-rose-for-emily-and-porters-the-jilting-of-granny-weatherall.
4. Nebeker, Helen E. “Emily’s Rose of Love: Thematic Implications of the purpose of reading in Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily.” The Bulletin of the range fashionable Language Association, Vol.24, No. 1, 1970, pp.3-13. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/1346461. Accessed twenty-two March 2018.

“A Rose for Emily” shows the concept of isolation and separation. Emily Grierson’s father was many of her problems. Emily Grierson lived her life with her father’s expectations. Her father thinks that no man is good enough for his daughter. Therefore, he kicks anyone who comes closer to his daughter. ‘We remembered all the young men her father had driven away, and we knew that with nothing left, she would have to cling to that which had robbed her, as people will.

After Emily lived under her father’s expectations for so many years, her father died. It causes Emily to go to madness. Since her father refused all the men that liked Emily in her entire life, she is left alone after her death. ‘After her father’s death she went out very little after her sweetheart went away, people hardly saw her at all. Emily’s point of view towards men is affected by her father’s rules, which causes her to isolate herself from the people that live in the town.

Emily decides not to go out anymore because there’s no use in it, but she meets Homer Barron one day. Many people in the town used to talk about Emily homer because they were so close, everyone thought that they would marry one day, but a rumor separates that Homer Barron liked men. After ‘Homer himself had remarked–he liked men,’ This was not well accepted by society, nor was it accepted by Miss Emily, and even when once again there was a change a reality she had to endure. Emily still ‘carried her head high enough–even when we believed that she fell.

But Homer wanted to leave her, so this causes Emily to go mad because she didn’t want to lose the second person she loved, so she poisoned him. ‘A neighbor saw the Negro man admit him at the kitchen door at dusk one evening. And that was the last we saw of Homer Barron. And of Miss Emily for some time. Ms. Emily didn’t want to be alone, which causes her to not buried Homer Barron’s body, but eventually, this will cause Homer Barron’s body to rot badly. It doesn’t bother her because she is with her loved ones, but it bothers her neighbors. Emily did whatever to keep her secret from the people that live in the town.

‘Already we knew that there was one room in that section above stairs which no one had seen in forty years. ‘The man himself lay in the bed. ‘Then we noticed that in the second pillow was the indentation of ahead. One of us lifted something from it and leaning forward that faint and invisible dust dry and acrid in the nostrils, we saw a long strand of iron-gray hair. They discover Homer’s dead body lying in bed upstairs after Emily had died and still lies next to Homer Barron’s rotting corpse. Her craziness took over her. She didn’t want to be left out alone with nothing, so the only way to get out of the loneliness for her was by killing her, one love.

Emily thought in her mind that she would marry Homer Barron but didn’t go as the way she planned in her head. ‘We learned that Miss Emily had been to the jeweler’s and ordered a man’s toilet set in silver, with letters H.B. on each piece. Two days later, we learned that she had bought a complete outfit of men’s clothing, including a nightshirt…’ To Emily she thinks, Homer is still alive because she buys this silver made especially for him.

After his death, Emily was never seen by anyone. She stays in her house and sleeps beside Homer Barron even though he is dead. In the end, Emily Grierson died alone in her home. ‘She died in one of the downstairs rooms, in heavy walnut bed with a curtain, her gray head propped on a pillow yellow and moldy with age and lack of sunlight.’ Eventually, Emily dies after she lived her entire life loneliness because she followed under her father’s expectations isolated herself from society. Being separated from society can cause a person to go crazy because of being alone. It can cause someone to do very insanity things.

In William Faulkner’s short story “A Rose for Emily”, Emily was a forlorn lady that experiences a lot to discover love. Emily’s father dies when she’s thirty, at that point a man named Homer arrives at town who Emily winds up falling in love with. Roses have various implications, “red, the lover’s rose signifies enduring passion. White, humility and innocence; yellow, expressing friendship and joy. [While] pink gratitude, appreciation and, admiration; orange, enthusiasm and, desire. White lilac and purple roses represent enchantment and love at first sight” (Teleflora). The rose in “A Rose for Emily” symbolizes and speaks to the love and adoration that Emily never received.

For an amazing duration, all of Emily’s life, she never gets love from any other individual but her dad. Emily was constantly secured up in the house alongside being desolate. Emily’s dad powers Emily to just love him by keeping her unmarried and bolted away every time a suiter comes by to marry her. Doing this current Emily’s dad instructs Emily how to love in all of the incorrect ways, by keeping them locked away to have all to themselves and demise. This is the main way Emily figures out how to love and she later attempts to utilize this strategy to keep Homer around. Emily yearned for love and fondness, the rose symbolizes the love and fondness that Emily wasn’t used to receiving before Homer (Falkner).

At the point when Homer Baron, a construction worker, shows enthusiasm for Emily he brings any expectation of affection for Emily. Notwithstanding Emily’s age, Homer allows Emily to get the adoration and love she’s constantly ached for, Emily at last discovered her rose. Homer takes Emily on carriage rides, and Emily rapidly begins to fall for Homer. The town’s people see and accept that Emily has discovered love. Emily’s cousins show up and Homer vanishes stripping Emily of her rose once more. Homer later returns and Emily utilizes what her dad showed her while adoring somebody, she kills him so he can be her rose for eternity.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the rose in ‘A Rose for Emily’ symbolizes love and warmth that Emily’s heart aches for. Emily’s dad never took into account her wed, which leaves her with urgency and need for affection. Emily’s father death negatively affected her life leaving her 30 and single. When Homer shows Emily the attention that she longed wished for, Emily has finally found her rose.

A Rose for Emily, by William Faulkner, is representative of the southern gothic as the themes of love, lost, death and murder are included in the story. Gothic nature was hinted in the story by the descriptions of emily’s house and the poison she purchased. Emily, who is the protagonist, was a perfect young lady, who was wealthy and lived a happy life with her father. Times have changed and now she is currently an elderly woman living alone in her crumbling house.

The gothic elements indicated in the novel has undoubtedly underlined Faulners work in the gothic period. Faulkner showed greats amount of detail by how illustrative of nature these stories were as time went on during the 19th century. Extreme and antisocial behaviours were explored by southern gothic writers. These behaviours was a result of a confining code of social conduct. Southern gothic indicated the belief that the clarified surface of the social hierarchy were fragile and sensitive, hiding the twisted psyches.

Aengus is the protagonist of the poem and he is the speaker himself. The poem commences by Aengus taking off into a hazel wood to do some fishing. Aengnus proceeds to create a fishing rod out of hazel stick, he then hooks a berry to the end and dips it into a stream. Aengus ends up catching a silver trout. Aengus describes in the second stanza that he places the fish on the floor then starts to begin a fire. He then begins to hear a swishing noise and someone calling out his name.

Aegnus turns his body back and has seen that the trout has transformed into a “glimmering girl”. He was smitten but Aengus doesn’t get the possibility to talk to the girl as she runs and disappears into thin air. As the poem goes on it fasts forward in time. Aengus is now an elderly man and hasn’t stopped the search for the “glimmering girl” who appeared to him some time ago. Even though he’s old, he’s determined to find out where the girl has gone.

William Butler had an interest in Myth and Folklore of his native Ireland. Yeats then became involved to study the occult, esoteric and hermetic traditions but also paranormal phenomena. “The song of wandering aengus is embedded with mythical and occult ideas hence the supernatural concepts. Yeats met a political activist named maud Gonne. Yeats was suddenly captivated by Gonne. “The Song of Wandering Aengus” was created 10 years into Yeats pursuing of Gonne. Yeats passion is reflected in that of mythical Aengus.

To add drama and suspense to the story. William Faulkner used a number of gothic concepts, these concepts help the responders minds to transfer the action forward in their imagination. This is by creating doubts, creating a creepy atmosphere where tension and suspense are possible. A creepy neglected mansion, an elderly lady, townsfolk gossip, horrific memories and suspicion are some of the gothic elements included in ‘A rose for Emily’.

Gothic stories often include the themes of isolation, suspicion and loneliness, this is commonly paired with romanticism, to help establish the gothic atmosphere. Emily’s background and family history made isolated townspeople more likely to jump to conclusions, which were judgmental because of the influence of others. William Faulkner foreshadowed the ghastly uncovering by outlining the process of how Emily kept her father’s death for three days.

Foreshadowing and flashback are two common rhetorical devices used in gothic texts, these devices make use of time to produce a desired effect. Flashbacks are used to indicate events that have occurred before the beginning of the story. Whereas foreshadowing creates an expectation for an event that has not yet occurred. Faulkner uses both techniques in his story. “A Rose for Emily”, is told by the narrator through a sequence of consecutive flashbacks.

The narrator begins the story by recounting the scene of Emily’s funeral. The description of this is actually a flashback, as the story concludes with the narrators recollection of the towns discovery of the corpse in the Grierson home following Emily’s funeral. As the story goes on, the narrator flashes back and forth through numerous occasions in Emily’s life and the town she grew up in.

Rhetorical devices shown in “the song of wandering Aengus” include poetic form, Rhyme, Metaphors, Similes and Symbolism. Throughout the poem all stanzas follow a ABABCDCD rhyme technique. This rhyme technique leads the poem into a ballad. Yeats includes, symbols, Similes and Metaphors to amplify the resonance of the poems images and language. The images and the stories provided in the poem are clearly communicated through the use of metaphors. The most evident themes in “The Song of Wandering Aengus” is unrequited love and perfection through art.

In the first stanza, young aengus is hit by a strong infatuation with “a glimmering girl”, and prepares to search for her. In the second stanza Aengus has grown “old with wandering” but has struggled to find “the grimmering girl”. Yeats use of mythological allusions and metaphors highlights the theme of romantic idealisations. Perfection through art is the likelihood of perfection through art in an otherwise imperfect world. Yeats has intertwined a pattern of de-romanticization and disappointment. As the poem goes on Yeats addresses that there is always another chance for worldly perfection through artistic creation.

Gothic authors assemble wild, petrifying storylines in which puzzling secrets, supernatural experiences, and characters’ enormous duress conspired to generate a breathless reading occurrence. Which both texts succeeded at, with the use of rhetorical device, which included metaphors, similes and imagery. Both protagonists in the gothic texts, have a pattern of motifs that interrelate with the reservoir of communal components in the narrators conscious. At the start of both texts the protagonists are young and pure, but as the texts move forward the protagonists become old but still have the motive to find something they’ve lost.

The larger portion of critical discussion has centered on the nature and cause of the aberration which leads Emily to kill homer and Keep his body in her bedroom, on this question also there little agreement is Emily a black Widow who devour her unsuspecting lover a desperate and slightly crazed spinster who kills to possess him perhaps she is forced into madness or a fantasy world, is she a victim, then of time the town, her father, or her own repressed sexuality. the first sentence introduce the antagonists, when Miss Emily died, the whole town went to her funeral the men through a sort of respectful affection for fallen monument , the women mostly out of curiosity to see the inside of the house

Emily clause is subordinate the town is the subject of the sentence such construction used by an artist who compared the short story to the lyric poem in its demands for exactness and economy ,should lead to suspect that the town may require as much of attention as Emily Emily is a spinster who has not been visited in ten years, this sentence also provides important clues to the town attitudes towards Emily, the town comes to her funeral, not in grief to mourn the passing of a beloved member of the community, but out of curiosity and respect for a defunct institution in addition to its clear that Emily is a victim for there is no evidence that she is regarded with deserved hate or disgust. On the contrary, she seems to have been a pillar of the community.

Inside Miss Emily house was like house in the movie a really aesthetic type, house such as in Gothic Romances the house appears to be the victim of the town, basically the town went there with much curiosity to trying to figure out what was inside In addition Miss Emily removed the cemetery is parallel to the house stands in a neighborhood of obliterated august names as her grave is among the ranked and anonymous’ graves if civil war soldiers ‘ the parallel works in reserve also suggesting that the house is a kind of tomb. In each case Emily and her house are not the agents but the victims. Of what are they victims? The house seems clearly to be decaying, a victim of the time, yet it may not necessarily be a natural process that changes the most select street to a commercial area

As Emily house is invaded by people from the town so her neighborhood is invaded by commercial interest rather than preserved for the value it may once have had. It suggested the the men respectful affection is a hollow emotion, hollow as would be the suggestion that her house is an eyesore among eyesores The remainder of the first section presents a brief history of Emily taxes, beginning with their remission by colonel Sartoris the mayor he fathered the edict that no Negro woman should appear on the streets without an apron, remitted her taxes, Emily as impoverished aristocracy, is somewhat like the former slaves she becomes a duty, obligation action is qualified by his motives, which appear to be based more on than on respectful affection

The mayor don’t treat Miss Emily as an individual human being in need, but as a class as a Lady Aristocrat, the newer generation recognizes no such category and decides she must pay her taxes the new aldermen dehumanize Emily into a Faceless Citizen from the she receives an impersonal tax notice, a formal letter, an offer from the mayor to meet at the place of her choosing, and finally a deputation. The generation are similar in that they both choose to deal with an idea of Emily rather than with Emily herself, they are different in that they have different ideas of her and therefore approach her and her taxes differently.

In the other hand we recognize that all the women were curious about figuring out what inside the house of Miss Emily , the atmosphere of the house remind the Gothic Romance, it is tomblike , dusty, dark, and damp, with a stairway that mouns into shadow, the room is dominated by crayon portrait of Emily land dead father on a tarnished gilt easel , when Emily appear the women begin to see that she resembles her house , a gold chain disappears into her belt just as the stair disappears into shadow, and her cane has tarnished gold head hear appearance is striking her skeleton was smell and spare ,perhaps that was why what would have been merely plumpness in another was obesity in her , she looked bloated like a body long submerged in motionless water , and of that pallid hue

This passage begins with a kind of apology for her heaviness that teases the imagination first she small and spare, then pleasingly plump, but by the end of the first sentence she is obese. Three words letter she has bloated and by the end of the passage she has been transformed from a little old lady into a bloated corpse as decayed as the house how we could describe or respond to such a description? Through the hints that we may be in Gothic Romance , we have come to expect a Gothic heroine, we may be surprised when we learn she is small and fat , if it in spite of our developing sympathy , the description temps us to see her as a Gothic villainess .

But how affect learning that Miss Emily she balloons into a drowned corpse looking like a corps, she may be sinister, yet on the other hand, she may deserve sympathy especially if her appearance is the result of the same kind of process that has made the house into an eyesore The narrator introduce so gently to her ghastly appearance seems to have shown some sympathy for her , reinforcing the sympathy that already feel for what appears to be the helpless victim of powerful and careless forces

The towns shows little sympathy for miss Emily two generation have viewed her as a stereotype rather than as a living person, Miss Emily seems both pathetic and sinister, the interior of her house is both sad and frightening one of the frightening things about her and her house is exemplified by the staircase and the gold chain both of which produce lines that frustrate the eye, causes without effect also the narrator mentioned that miss Emily was against an invasion of tax collector , yet she seems not to need support , in confrontation her standing framed in a doorway, dominating the room as her father portrait dominated before she entered , she is dignified and powerful as she vanquishes them .

Her triumph is undercut, however, by the narrator parenthetical remark that her authority, colonel Sartois, has been dead for ten years, that she act as if the mayor is still alive is another unexplained action like an effect without a cause it could be possible that Miss Emily didn’t realize that is dead? does she lives in a fantasy world where the people she likes never die, or is she perversely pretending ignorance , by defeating the deputation she upsets the expectation that she will be victimized and earns admiration for her strength at the same time she confront she confront with disturbing mysteries about her character and motives

A series of confrontations between Emily and Jefferson takes place in the following section when the aldermen attend to take care of the smell without confronting her, she catches and shames them, and the next confrontation concerns her refusal to admit her father death on the other side the town defeats her , bending her , Emily profoundly shocks the town , however and she broke down after a three day struggle followed by a long illness and kind of resurrection , in the other part she refuse to fail , to play the fallen woman when the town thinks she is fallen , she also succeeds in buying arsenic without satisfying the law requirement ,her victories continue into when vanquishes female relation strategy backfires the apparently she suffer complete defeat homer disappears and the town is morally triumphant the suspected affair is at an end and Emily has not married a Yankee day laborer,throught the rest of the part, Emily leads the isolated spinster life , doing the things spinsters may be expected to do teaching china painting, refusing a mailbox and house number , and finally dying alone in her decaying house.

The townspeople begin to really sorry for her after the smell goes away because they remember how her great aunt went completely crazy and how her father kept suitors away, on the other hands they are not pleased exactly, but vindicated when she is still single at thirty, they are glad when her father dies and leaves her a pauper, because at last they can pity her and believe her equal to themselves for now she too would know the old thrill and the old despair of a penny more less. They are glad when Emily and Homer are seen together, but begin to say poor Emily when the old people gossip enough to convince them she is a fallen woman they are convinced it would be the best thing if she killed herself with the poison she buys, they are really glad when they think Emily and Homer are married, because they want to be rid of her female cousins but are sorry when there is no public party.

The say that she will marry homer then discover that he likes men and is not marrying man they say she will eventually persuade him but we never know if she does in general they wrong as it is almost certain that they are wrong about the cause of the smell and the fact of the marriage.

More over flowers were bought by relatives rather than cut by the townspeople that the ladies are curious and macabre and that the old veterans distorted her past in their memories even though the townspeople seem for once to do the decent thing by not opening the room until she’s buried , they have pried enough to know that the door will have to be forced the consistent narrative sympathy for Emily is not only in contrast to the towns attitude, but presumably also in contrast to the narrators own attitude at the time vents took place.

The short story “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner depicts the underrepresentation of women in a small-town Jefferson where everyone respects Emily Grierson due to her aristocratic origin and disrespect her behind her back. The men of the town think that a woman like Emily with high-status should not marry a man like Homer who belongs to a northern society having low-status in the community. Townspeople think that the women can be of high-status yet cannot be above the men. This shows the underrepresentation of women in the community where men do not promote “equality” but “racism”. Even the narrator calls Emily a “fallen monument” because Emily does not own the wealth of aristocrats yet keeps the pride like an aristocrat. The people of the town contempt Emily calling her smelly and sprinkles the lemons in her home even when Judge denies the townsmen suing her for being smelly and affecting the streets with bad odor. The men of the town do not respect a woman’s privacy. I argue that the women in the story are underrepresented whereas the race is overrepresented. This becomes clear when Colonel Sartoris says that negro women should wear an apron before coming to the streets. The narrator also seems biased as he does not talk directly about Emily’s black manservant. Townspeople created never recognized Emily as their own and created many difficulties in the path of her life.

In the short story “A Rose for Emily”, the narrator seems partial when he says the women of the town go to Emily’s funeral just out of curiosity whereas, men go to her funeral for deference. This seems that the narrator is creating a bad image of townswomen in the reader’s eyes. He is putting the women on the negative pole and the men on the positive pole. The narrator does not disclose their gender but they seem male from his unfair nature towards women of the town. When villagers find Homer’s skeleton in Emily’s house, the narrative “we” suddenly changes to “they” (Curry). The narrator gives the impression of a racist as he uses the word “niggers” for Tobe, he kinds of developing an understanding of partiality towards race (Faulkner 1954:491) (Stralen). The “negro” meet the ladies and once they come in, he goes out of the house; nobody stops him because of his African- American identity. More so, the narrator let him leave knowing that he might have significant information about Homer’s death. All of these events lead to the narrator’s biased nature towards men.

The village fosters undermine the women representation in the village. The women of the town have been judged from their race, color and looks by all the people of her town. People call Emily “bloated” and “fat” (Faulkner 1). Emily does not allow anyone to enter her home except her servant, Tobe. She becomes isolated from everyone. The cessation of entering her home continues from the days she stopped giving painting classes to her students several years ago. After Homer’s disappearance, she closes the top floor of her house. Once a deputation goes to her house to tell her that she has to pay taxes her father was owing. She does not let anyone in and asks them to send Colonel Sartoris (Burg, Boyle, et al. 379). The reason for sending them to Colonel because Colonel used to tell the townspeople that they all owe money to Emily’s father. So, they will pay him back by remitting Emily’s taxes and letting her retain her pride. The men of her society do shameless act by interrupting Emily’s privacy and personal space and entering her house. Few men from the town go to the judge and ask him to charge Emily for being smelly where judge refuses this charge against Emily. They still do not listen to the judge and four of them go to Emily’s house and start sprinkling lemons in her house. This whole event reflects the disrespectful behavior of townsmen towards Emily. Furthermore, the men of the town promote race discrimination even after the end of the war. Colonel Sartoris says “no negro woman should appear on streets”: this represents the racial tension in the town by making them feel inferior and categorize them as lower class. People with color were thought to be inferior to wealthy people (Faulkner 1). This is why people did not like Emily’s manservant who was black- colored. They think that after Emily is “deserted” by Homer, her manservant’s poor housekeeping is the reason that Emily’s house has terrible stench (Faulkner 5).

People may regard Emily for her aristocratic background but on her back, they come down on her. Emily’s father rejected many men for his daughter saying that they were “not good enough” for his daughter (Faulkner 2). So, Emily never got love from any man other than his father. When she starts dating Homer Barron, a northern man, and a Yankee, she has been judged as everyone starts criticizing their relationship calling her “poor Emily” and “pathetic ride” that Emily took with her lover (Faulkner 5). People disagree with them relationship especially the old men who did not want Emily to marry Homer as he remarked that he is a homosexual and “not a marrying man” (Faulkner 5). On top of that, townspeople show themselves narrow-minded because of their objection on the marriage of Emily and Homer due to their southern and northern origin respectively. People prove that their mind still lives in an old era where a woman can be of high-status but cannot be above a man.

Moreover, the minister’s wife calls on Emily’s cousins to ask Emily not to continue her affair with Homer, Emily does not stop. Yet, Homer visits Emily’s house and Emily purchases present for him: ‘a man’s toilet set in silver, with the letters H.B. on each piece’ (Faulkner 5) and ‘a complete outfit of men’s clothing, including a nightshirt’ (Faulkner 5). After three days, Homer starts visiting Emily again. People believe that Homer will definitely marry Emily. But later that day, nobody sees Homer visiting Emily ever again. So, everybody thinks that Homer has deserted Emily. They do not think that Emily could have left him, too. This shows that townspeople always reflect the idea of men being superior to women as only men have the right to abandon women. People never treated Emily like they treat their own people; they always treated her superior to them, because of her southern origin, in front of her. She might need people to be her friends but nobody understood her. This is why she isolates herself from everyone in the village.

At her funeral, the people of the town Jefferson get to go inside her house. That day, they found out the skeleton of Homer Barron laying on the bed beside “a long grey strand of hair” (Burg, Boyle et al. 379). People think that Emily has killed Homer because she bought arsenic before Homer’s disappearance from the town. She goes to the pharmacy and asked the pharmacist for arsenic where at first, he refuses to give her arsenic without knowing the reason of purchasing it but then he gives it to her and writes “for rats” on the box (Faulkner 250). Nobody knows the reason for Homer’s death yet everyone blames Emily for poisoning him and killing him. People did not like her for her care-free and independent nature. Emily lived life according to her own term: “She did not let anyone write on her. She was like a white page of a book. Nobody could properly understand her. Neither Faulkner nor the narrator could be able to capture Emily’s life in their story, properly (Curry). The title “A Rose for Emily” feels kind of pseudo to me as the people who never showed any kind of support to Emily are standing beside her corpse whereas the narrator is feeling sad and paying her respect on her death by giving a pseudo rose to her in the story only. People who made her life like the thorns are giving her a rose. This shows the deceptive behavior of the characters of the story.

In conclusion, it is clear that all the villagers including the narrator underrepresent the women. Nobody in the town promotes “equality”, everyone encourages “racism” and “genderism”. The narrator calling himself “we” shows his ambiguous and pseudo behavior. Everyone judges Emily for her looks and her self-dependent behavior. The townsmen disagree with Emily’s intimate relationship with her boyfriend, Homer. Nobody wants them to get marries as Emily is from an aristocratic background and Homer is just a Yankee and a laborer. People try to break their relationship. When Homer vanishes, the narrator describes that Homer abandons Emily without knowing the facts which leave the reader thinking of the idea of inequality; this idea of inequality reflects that only men can leave women as they are inferior to men. People of the town created several difficulties in Emily’s life due to the inequality factor. Everybody kept on respecting her in front of her; maybe Emily did not need respect, she needed companionship in the townspeople. If people could have treated her like their own, her life could be like a rose and not the thorns. This represents the title of the story “A Rose for Emily” is pseudo due to the town’s people who never stood with Emily came to her funeral where the narrator of the story pays his last respects to Emily by giving an imaginary rose to her.

Besides, the idea of race has been highlighted in several events. The narrator behaves like a racist, too, when he does not stop Tobe to leave the house at Emily’s funeral. Being the narrator of the story, he should have stopped Tobe as he may lead the law to the shreds of evidence of Homer’s death but he did not stop Emily’s manservant because of his race. The townspeople thought Tobe to be unimportant and not knowledgeable because of him being African-American. People judge Emily and her manservant without reaching to the roots of facts. Everyone curses Tobe for Emily’s house’s bad stench. The narrator narrating this story does not bother to get to the bottom of this mystery. He remains in dark, because of his racist behavior towards Tobe, while keeping his readers in dark as well. The townspeople displayed that a woman can have the aristocratic origin and can be of a high-status than her partner, but people would always bring her down and will not accept a woman to be above a man. The inequality factor of people overpowers the feelings of Emily Grierson in this story and isolate her from her lover, Homer Barron.

Work Cited

1. Burg, Jennifer, et al. “Using Constraint Logic Programming to Analyze the Chronology in ‘A Rose for Emily.’” Computers and the Humanities, vol. 34, no. 4, 2000, pp. 377–392. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/30204830.
2. Curry, Renee R. ‘Gender and authorial limitation in Faulkner’s ‘A Rose for Emily.’ (Special Issue: William Faulkner).’ The Mississippi Quarterly, vol. 47, no. 3, 1994, p. 391+. Literature Resource Center, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A15939701/LitRC?u=vanc85972&sid=LitRC&xid=7dbeaf33. Accessed 1 Aug. 2019.
3. Faulkner, William. ‘A Rose for Emily’. Forum, 1930.
4. Faulkner, William ‘A Rose for Emily’. In: The Faulkner Reader. Random House. New York. 1954.
5. van Stralen H, Iken AM. The Coveted Monument. PsyArt. January 2013:4. https://search-ebscohost-com.ezproxy.langara.ca/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=90545416&site=eds-live&scope=site. Accessed August 1, 2019.

“Of course a Grierson would not think seriously of a Northerner, a day laborer”

This line from the short story A Rose for Emily is in reference to the view point of the people of Jefferson when they see Emily Grierson, a lady from the upper class, falling in love with a man from the working class. The story brings to light the tragedy that unfolds in the town of Jefferson due to its class conscious society. Since class and social standing plays an important role in the story, Marxist reading becomes essential to understand the central issue of this text. According to Marxism, literature reflects those social institutions out of which it emerges. It believes that literature reflects class struggle and materialism. So Marxist reading of a text involves the study of the role of class relations, a character’s oppression due to the class s/he represents and at times some suggestion in the form of a solution for it. At different times and places in the American history, the traditional class system has been the factor that determines one’s standing in the community. We can decipher the remnants of this kind of class system operating in A Rose for Emily.

The readers are made aware of the rigid class system in the town of Jefferson where Mr. Grierson thinks it important to maintain the illusion that he has a fortune appropriate to his rank in the society. He prefers his daughter to live a life of spinsterhood than to get married to someone “beneath her”. It is only after his death that the façade comes to an end leaving Emily alone and penniless. But by this time even Emily has internalized the classist ideologies. The metaphor Faulkner uses for Emily is that of a “fallen monument”. Her pre- civil war aristocracy is fading away but this does not stop her from acting like a member of a “superior” class. Readers are told that she used to teach painting designs on China dishes which was in earlier times considered a pastime of refined young ladies. Also she is always described as carrying herself with a certain dignity- whether she goes out to buy rat poison or on long romantic carriage rides with her lover. The narrator remarks about her “she carried her head high enough- even when we believed that she was fallen.” So high is her self- esteem that Colonel Sartoris has to device a false story about Emily’s father’s generosity to the town in order to convince her to not pay the taxes. This example depicts that Colonel Sartoris, a representative of the older generation, is a believer of class based society and therefore he indirectly extends financial help to a “lady” which is not possible otherwise.

The town of Jefferson is one of the most important and active characters in the story. The attitude of the town towards Emily is predicted by her social standing. They respect her for her social rank. To them Emily is not a human but “a tradition”, “an idol”, “an angel” or a “tableau”. This becomes the ultimate reason for Emily’s victimization and ostracism as the community is unable to perceive Emily as anything but a “high and mighty” Grierson. There are several examples in the story where the people of the town act in a certain way due to the class to which Emily belongs. They prefer crawling into Emily’s lawn like burglars to sprinkle lime rather than to tell her to her face about the foul smell coming from her house.

Emily’s social class is in no way a boon to her. It not only dehumanizes her in the eyes of the townspeople, it also incites a tinge of jealousy amongst them. They subtly enjoy when Emily becomes a pauper for it is the only way she can be seen as a normal human being with problems. The respect that they show towards her is also in a way forced and superficial for when alive she is no more than “a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town” and when dead is only interesting enough to stir the “curiosity” of the women of the town. Her life becomes open to criticism due to the burden of being a “noblesse oblige”. The people feel that Emily has brought “disgrace to the town” when Homer Baron, a working class Northerner begins to court her. Homer Baron is considered a warm and friendly man. He is a fine fellow but not fine enough to court Emily for he does not enjoy the social status equivalent to her. Emily’s affair with Homer Baron can thus also be seen as her way of rebelling against the society which is bent on fixing her to her class. One can also argue that the main reason Homer Baron courts Emily is to attach himself to the high social class because with no money or beauty to boast of, it is the only attraction that she has. However their love fails to blossom amidst the class created boundaries. The people of the town try all they have in their power- from family pressure by snobbish cousins to the interference of a religious head. They finally succeed in tearing the lovers apart. This ends in the mysterious disappearance of Homer Baron and the total isolation of Emily thus leading the story to its tragic end.

As a reader of the twenty first century, especially in India, it is not difficult for us to understand the stratification of society in the name of class. This obsession with class thrusts upon the people certain obligations. For example in India the system of royalty has long been abolished but still the successors of royal families, especially in Rajasthan, try hard to maintain their status and legacy. Even people like Saif Ali khan are still referred to as Nawab of Pataudi though they do not have any significant place in the political arena. One can also not deny that even today when it comes to matters like marriage, it is a socially accepted norm to marry within your own class. Doing otherwise leads to a lot of speculation and criticism. We can then conclude that the society we live in today is not very different for Faulkner’s Jefferson and this is scary because if in reality there can be a society like Jefferson, there can also be victims like Emily Grierson.

To conclude, it would then not be wrong to argue that classist ideology harms all of the story’s main characters. Classism isolates both Mr. Grierson and Emily from the rest of the community. It deprives Emily of the chance to develop the interpersonal skills that she needs in order to make a life for herself after her father’s death. In fact we might say that, given the extreme degree of Emily’s isolation, Classism drives her mad. Social status very probably plays a role in Homer Baron’s disappearance or death because it is probably his attitude towards social rank that inspires him to court Emily and it can be Emily’s classist pride which motivates her to live with her lover’s dead body than to be seen with him in public.

Work cited

1. Barry, Peter. Beginning Theory, An Introduction to literary and Cultural Theory. Manchester: Viva books private limited, 2014. Print
2. Kirk, Robert w. and Marvin Klotz. “A Rose for Emily”. In Faulkner’s People: A complete guide and index to the characters in the fiction of William Faulkner. Berkeley: university of California press, 1963
3. Nayar, Pramod.Contemporary Literary and Cultural Theory. Delhi: Pearson India Education Services private limited, 2010.Print
4. Wagner-Martin, Linda. William Faulkner: six decades of criticism. Michigan state university press, 2002.